In the interest of sustainability, SCOM(The Sustainability Committee of Maryland) has been working on an initiative since Fall 2013 to institute a fridge rental program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, 70% of fridges used by students on campus are not energy efficient (not energy-star rated), leading to energy waste in dorm rooms. After a thorough study on possible solutions to this problem, SCOM has determined a dorm room fridge rental service can solve energy-waste issues and improve sustainability in dorm rooms with easy implementation:

1)    A fridge rental service can provide 100% energy-star rated units to those who choose to utilize this option. This can lead to significant energy-savings in dorm rooms.

2)    A fridge rental service would greatly reduce waste, as the purchase of dorm fridge units by individual students increases resource consumption and landfill composition when students trash their fridges after a single year or two of living in a dorm. A rental service can properly maintain a fridge unit for up to ten years and thus provide the services of one unit to many students, as well as properly dispose of the unit at the end of its useable life.

3)    A fridge rental service offers students and parents a convenient option to use a sustainable dorm room fridge, as opposed to parents buying an inefficient unit, having to deliver the unit themselves, and disposing before the usable life of unit has been seen.

We ask that you help support SCOM’s dorm room sustainability initiative to implement an energy-efficient fridge rental program on campus which will provide a convenient and affordable option to parents and students for an energy-star dorm room refrigerator.